British thesp Christopher Eccleston ("Heroes," "Doctor Who," "Elizabeth") has signed on to play John Lennon in Blast! Films and BBC Four's biopic "Naked Lennon" reports Variety.

Set between 1967 and 1971, the film deals with the end of Lennon's first marriage to Cynthia, Yoko Ono entering his life, the death of manager Brian Epstein and the band's own messy and acrimonious disintegration.

"Torchwood" and "Absolutely Fabulous" actress Naoko Mori, who appeared opposite Eccleston in a 2005 episode of "Doctor Who", is set to play Yoko. Also in the cast are Claudine Blakely ("Lark Rise to Candleford," "Pride and Prejudice") as his first wife, Andrew Scott ("Longitude," "John Adams") as Paul McCartney, and Rory Kinnear ("Quantum of Solace," "Cranford") as Brian Epstein

Robert Jones, creator of BBC's acclaimed series "Party Animals", penned the script. Filming is underway in London for an airing sometime next year.

The project comes not long after "Nowhere Boy", Sam Taylor Wood's 1950's-set feature film which looks at Lennon's teenage years and has so far drawn mixed reviews.

Eccleston is an 'odd' choice for Lennon! He doesn't look or sound much like John, and Naoko (Tosh) Mori is, I think, too gorgeous to play Yoko!!Having said that, I do like Chris Eccleston; he was great in his one series as the Doctor Naoko Mori was always a fave in Torchwood Could be an interesting project!Steve.

Just a reminder that tonight, Nov. 21, on PBS @ 9pm EST/ 8pm CST on "Masterpiece" hosted by David Tennant (the 10th Doctor Who) is "Lennon Naked" starring Christopher Eccleston (the 9th Doctor Who) and Naoko Mori ("Torchwood") as Yoko Ono, and Rory Kinnear (son of British comedian Roy Kinnear who played Algernon in "Help!" and appeared with John Lennon in "How I Won The War") as Brian Epstein.

I saw some inaccuracies in here: John was taller than Paul. In reality, they were around the same height. At the beginning of the film, John in 1964 looked like John from 1980. And he looked like Ringo from 1964. In 1969, there are showing John and Yoko at a press conference talking to a reporter named Gloria Emerson. They show that same meeting of John, Yoko, and Gloria Emerson but it was in a conference room at Apple in "Imagine: John Lennon." John's hair length was too long for 1968. That was his 1969/70 hair length. And towards the end of the film when they show John and Yoko jetting off to Gibrilatar to get married in 1969, John is cleanshaven. He had a beard when they got married. There is a scene in 1969/1970 where John gets out of his limo, hops over the fence of Paul McCartney's house and throws a rock at a window of his home. I saw this, also, in the "Linda McCartney Story." In that film, a bearded Lennon pulls up outside of Paul's home, hops the fence, yells out, "McCartney!!!" Then proceeds to pick up a rock and throws it at the front door window of McCartney's home. Since it has been portrayed in two films, now. Did this event really ever take place? And, if it did, was this at Macca's Cavendish Road home? Or is this writer's exaggeration?

i thought it was quite an interesting program-i always think to myself that because i know the story so well,you do have to sometimes leave your brain out of the equation so to speak-the details like hair length and height of the actor,you have to let these details go.he didn't sound a lot like john either-and chris fairbank looked nothing like johns' dad.but these things are never going to be spot on,are they?

the story about john scaling the wall at cavendish avenue and putting a brick through the window.........i have also read this story but it has,as far as i know,never been confirmed by a beatle or an insider.so the jury is still out?does anybody know more?

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......."but tonight,i just wanna stay in,and be with you"..............

I dunno. This was circa 69, not 1964. Not too sure the heroin taking, family wrecking politically earnest John Lennon of this period was particularly a barrel of laughs. Certainly nothing seems to point to it, and I think for this period of his life they were uncomfortably close to the real man. They did show his human side - it just wasn't that pleasant.We had a thread ages ago about Lennon loosing his sense of humour - it had been such a big part of his songwriting and personna, and he was much the worse off for loosing it. Like he said, he didn't want to be the clown anymore. Though I'm not sure swapping that hat for self-obsessed a**hole was the best move.

like i said in an earlier post here i thought the program was pretty good,pretty interesting.when you stop and think for a moment john did seem to change an awful lot over quite a short period....obviously the heroin use wouldn't have slowed down the charachter changes and indeed the physical changes in him.i thought that chris ecclestone did a good job on portraying john,and when you get past the obvious defects-age,looks etc-i thought he was quite believable.we all have sides of our charachters that we don't like a lot,and nor do others.the changes in john lennon were fast and furious around the time of him actually hooking up with yoko.people can say what they like-but i am pretty sure the beatles were never the same when john and yoko became a couple.john did lose his sense of humour,always a big part of his make-up.this is a worn out theory but john had lots of issues in life that were never fully taken care of.....if you ask me yoko ono bought out the worst in john lennon,she really did.probably only 2 people in the whole world who believed yoko ono had any talent-they were john and yoko.the woman was bad news,and will go down history as the woman who destroyed the beatles and in a lot of ways did the same to the lennon the public knew pre-yoko.

rest in peace john...........from glass onion,dec.8th 2010

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......."but tonight,i just wanna stay in,and be with you"..............

nimrod

I dunno. This was circa 69, not 1964. Not too sure the heroin taking, family wrecking politically earnest John Lennon of this period was particularly a barrel of laughs. Certainly nothing seems to point to it, and I think for this period of his life they were uncomfortably close to the real man. They did show his human side - it just wasn't that pleasant.We had a thread ages ago about Lennon loosing his sense of humour - it had been such a big part of his songwriting and personna, and he was much the worse off for loosing it. Like he said, he didn't want to be the clown anymore. Though I'm not sure swapping that hat for self-obsessed a**hole was the best move.

As a fan on a Beatles forum I find that mildly offensive, however I respect your opinion, but is it appropriate on the 30th anniversay of his death when a lot of us are missing him so badly ?